Swap 8 x 8 Halloween Layout - May 31, 2011

Halloween - a fun holiday to dress your kids up or dress up yourself and eat candy or scare your friends or family.  I am starting to become fond of 8 x 8 layouts.   They are simple, yet seem to be more full of life than the 12 x 12 layout.  Perhaps the focus is more precise or the embellishments stand out more.  Whatever the reason, I have enjoyed creating all of these fun page layouts for my holiday swap.  Once again, I used the Cricuit Stretch your Imagination cartridge to make my embellishment.  Instead of sponging my embellishment, I decided to use my Stampin Up markers to highlight the entire pumpkin and his lines.  I sponged the PaperTray Ink White photo mat with Black Memento Ink and used some background paper that I found at AC Moore.

Celebrate - May 30, 2011

Celebrate - Celebrate your birthday, Celebrate your new job, Celebrate a promotion, Celebrate a new grandchild, a new pet, Celebrate a day that God has blessed you or Celebrate the fact we live in a free country.  Today is memorial day, so please honor your military.  There have been many men and women who are no longer here because they gave their lives so we can have "special" days like this to Celebrate.  Happy Memorial Day!

Swap 8 x 8 All Spruced Up Layout! - May 29, 2011

If you are like me, you are far behind on the scrapbooking.  To make a Christmas layout in May is a normal event.  Another bad habit that scrapbookers often have is having left over paper.  My goal was to use some of my scraps to make this layout (K&C and Stampin Up).  The tree embellishment came from Stretch your Imagination Cricuit Cartridge.  To spruce it up, I added rhinestones, stickles and an awesome glitter star.   I even delved into my stash and found alphabet stickers that had not been used in years.  It sure helped spruce up this page!

Swap 8 x 8 Turkey Layout - May 28, 2011

Before we know it Thanksgiving will be here and we will be gobbling up our festive feast!  This is the layout I made for an 8 x 8 swap.  I colored the turkey using copic markers, added some feathers and incorporated some pattern paper from DCWV to make a simple layout.

From My Husband: Congrats on my New Job! - May 27, 2011

Today starts my nine day vacation break before I start my new job.  Last night to celebrate, my husband surprised me with all these fun wrapped packages.  Inside the packages were all sorts of scrapbook paper he had picked up while he was traveling.  He also found scrapbooking embellishments for our pictures, ribbon and supplied me with all of these new stickles!!!  I was so surprised and had to share the news!  I have the best hubby in the world!  Thank you hubby for celebrating with me!  Now, I plan to play in my craft room for days!!!!!

WT323 Challenge - May 26, 2011

To start out with, this is not the prettiest card I have ever made, but I had fun working on the challenge.  The challenge was to make a card with a music theme.  So I looked to my iTunes and found a great song from the 80's called " Stray Cat Strut" by the Stray Cats.  The inspiration my cats, Bonnie and Clyde.  I used the Cricuit to cut out the cat and piano.  The cat is Fun Flocked in Orange with some added googly eyes.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado.  I embellished the card with a cat.  So please have some "Cat Class and Some Cat Style" for my music theme challenge card.

Thinking of You - May 25, 2011

The Side Step Cards are so adorable and fun to make that I attempted another one today.  They have started to become one of my favorite cards to make.  Of course, my second card has umbrellas in it also because of all the rain we have had plus the me and my Big Ideas designer paper is super cute to use.  I was able to pop up the umbrellas for a more three dimensional look.  The card is made with Stampin Up Barely Banana paper and with Papertray Ink white paper. The images are stamped with black Memento Ink and colored using my Copic markers. I used my Magnolia image, SU saying, and CTMH D1415 Happy Spring set to decorate this card.

Christmas Album Complete - May 24, 2011

My Christmas Album for 2009 is now complete.  I am sharing my last layout from the book which I think is simply adorable.  I used our pictures as gift boxes in the sleigh.  I used my Cricuit Christmas Cheer cartridge to cut the sleigh using Fit to Page.  I then cut the overlay of red for the sleigh at 5 3/4 and each reindeer is 5 3/4 in size. I am so happy that this project is done!  I can check one goal for the year off my list!

Scrapbooking - The Christmas Tree - May 23, 2011

Scrapbooks etc, has a section on making scrapbook pages from a shape.  It inspired me on my 2009 Christmas album.  I decided to cut a Christmas Tree along with the gift boxes using my Cricuit .  I then cut the pictures to fit in the tree and the boxes to make this layout.  I wanted a cute way to show off Bonnie and Clyde enjoying Christmas!

Get Well Soon Aunt Nancy - May 22, 2011

We have had quite a bit of rain this spring!   The rain inspired this "Get Well Soon" card for Bryan's aunt, Nancy.  Nancy is battling a brain tumor, and we are praying for her everyday.  We ask that you pray for her.  I know in my heart that God answers prayers.  I know he healed one of my friend's mothers when I was in 5th grade.  I wrote this verse to her and have always remember it: "I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications" Psalm 116:1.  I plan on writing this verse in Nancy's card so she will remember that God is listening to all of us.
   We have decided to send her a bit of chocolate to cheer her up!  I used the Side Card Step tutorial to make this card.  It is so easy and fun to decorate that I plan on making another one, so be watching for it.  The images are from  Close to My Heart D1415.  I used Stampin Up Real Read paper and PaperTray Ink White Paper.  The decorate paper with umbrellas came from 2008 me and my BIG ideas.  Plus a little Stickles to add a bit of glitz!

SC333 Challenge - May 21, 2011

Today, I am missing out on my scrapbook club because I am under the weather.  However, I just had to take some time to work on this week's challenge at Splitcoaststampers.   It seems that everyone is popping up pregnant or getting ready to have a little one.  In preparation for these events, the challenge came in perfectly handy to make a baby card.  My card is 5.25 x 5.25, a perfect size to fit in my 5.5 x 5.5 envelopes.  I used DCWV Nana's Nursery Premium Stack for my designer papers, and Papertray Ink White paper.  The image is stamped in black Memento Ink and colored with Copic and Stampin Up Markers. The dressed is paper pierced using one of the background papers.  Every girl must wear diamonds, so her earrings are Diamond Stickles.  The fancy matting was created by using a FISKAR punch.  The image is CTMH Ms. con the Go C1347, an adorable versatile stamp set.